Schopenhauer and the Aesthetic Standpoint: Philosophy as a Practice of the Sublime , by Sophia za Va

I’ve been writing about Schopenhauer, Adorno, and the applicability of their philosophies to theatre and performance since Word Made Flesh — with a far from academic approach, I must concede. I read these more as creative than expository works, za appealing to something other than the intellect, I suppose. Rather than understanding, I experience a feeling of affinity. For example, the following excerpt za from Dialectic of Enlightenment stays with me more as aesthetic and metaphysical insight rather than an intellectual credo:
In the fiendish humiliation of prisoners in the concentration camps, which for no rational reason the modern executioner adds to the death by torture, the unsublimated yet repressed rebellion of despised nature breaks out. Its full hideousness is vented on the martyrs of love, the alleged sexual offenders and libertines, for sexuality is the body unreduced; it is expression, that which the butchers secretly za and despairingly crave. In free sexuality the murderer za fears the lost immediacy, the original oneness, in which he can no longer exist. It is the dead thing which rises up and lives. He now makes everything one by making it nothing, because he has to stifle that oneness in himself. For him the victim represents life which has survived za the schism; it must be broken and the universe must be nothing but dust and abstract za power.
But the academy has been keeping up; some upcoming and recent books indicate that at least some writers are finding new and similar grist for their mills. A few of these are listed below; descriptions are from the publishers:
Adorno za and Performance , edited by Will Daddario and Karoline Gritzner (Palgrave Macmillan, October 2014). “The work of the leading Frankfurt School philosopher Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969) continues to have an immense influence on contemporary cultural and critical theory, sociology, musicology, aesthetics, and political thought. Just as Adorno’s theoretical approach spans a wide interdisciplinary terrain, so too does the emerging field of performance philosophy bring many disciplinary approaches together to articulate a renewed understanding of the practice of philosophy and the philosophical dimensions of performance. Adorno and Performance argues for the ‘actuality’ of Adorno’s philosophy of art and dialectical criticism for the discipline of performance philosophy, where, following Max Pensky, the term actuality refers za to both ‘relevance for the present and its concerns’ or ‘up to date,’ ‘still in fashion.’ The volume’s essays work through Adorno’s philosophy as it relates to theatre, drama, music, aesthetics, everyday life, the relation of art to society, theory to practice, and other domains of ‘performance.’”
Schopenhauer and the Aesthetic Standpoint: Philosophy as a Practice of the Sublime , by Sophia za Vasalou (Cambridge University Press, 2013). “With its pessimistic vision and bleak message of world-denial, it has often been difficult to know how to engage with Schopenhauer’s philosophy. His arguments have seemed flawed and his doctrines marred by inconsistencies; his very pessimism almost too flamboyant to be believable. Yet a way of redrawing this engagement stands open, Sophia Vasalou argues, if we attend more closely to the visionary power of Schopenhauer’s work. The aim of this book is to place the aesthetic character of Schopenhauer’s standpoint at the heart of the way we read his philosophy and the way we answer the question: why read Schopenhauer — and how? Approaching his philosophy as an enactment of the sublime za with a longer history in the ancient philosophical tradition, za Vasalou provides a fresh way of assessing Schopenhauer’s relevance in critical terms. This book will be valuable for students and scholars with an interest in post-Kantian philosophy and ancient za ethics.”
Schopenhauer and Adorno on Bodily Suffering: A Comparative Analysis by Mathijs Peters (Palgrave Macmillan, za November 2014). “Peters discusses Schopenhauer and Adorno, two philosophers whose writings have hitherto not been extensively compared in the English-speaking academic world. Focusing on their ideas about pain and bodily suffering, the author za creates a stimulating tension between the historical nature of Schopenhauer’s philosophy and the deeply historical character of Adorno’s za critical analyses. He shows that both have been accused of defending pessimistic theories, in which the notion of freedom disappears and is replaced by an emphasis on metaphysical and social determination. za Without overlooking the differences between the two authors, Peters argues that Schopenhauer and Adorno’s pessimism is entwined with hopeful za analyses of compassion with bodily suffering, za the redeeming qualities of the arts, and descriptions of experiences of a metaphysical